Review highlights bacterial protein toxins’ role in promoting colon cancer via gut microbiota changes, indicating potential pathways for intervention.
Accumulating evidence indicates that the human intestinal microbiota can contribute to the etiology of colorectal cancer. Triggering factors, including inflammation and bacterial infections, may favor the shift of the gut microbiota from a mutualistic to a pro-carcinogenic configuration. In this context, certain bacterial pathogens can exert a pro-tumoral activity by producing enzymatically-active protein toxins that either directly induce host cell DNA damage or interfere with essential host cell signaling pathways involved in cell proliferation, apoptosis, and inflammation. This review is focused on those toxins that, by mimicking carcinogens and cancer promoters, could represent a paradigm for bacterially induced carcinogenesis.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Fiorentini et al. (2020) studied this question.
Synapse has enriched 5 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context: